Monthly Archives: July 2014

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Manny Pacquiao (left) and Brandon Rios pose at a news conference ahead of their Nov. 24 fight that took place in Macau, China/Photo by Associated Press

Brandon Rios of Oxnard has lost his past two fights, and that’s enough to ruin anyone’s groove. It almost doesn’t matter that the two losses came to a good fighter in Mike Alvarado and a Hall of Fame fighter like Manny Pacquiao. Bottom line is, Rios can ill-afford a third consecutive defeat when he takes on Diego Gabriel Chaves of Argentina in the welterweight main event Aug. 2 at The Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas (on HBO).

He knows that.

“It’s do or die for me and I will do what I have to do to win this fight,” said Rios, 28, and a former lightweight world champion.

After losing handily to Pacquiao by eight, 10 and 12 points on the scorecards, Rios might have taken on an easier opponent than Chaves (23-1, 19 KOs), who took tough Keith Thurman to 10 rounds before being stopped by Thurman in his only loss last July 27 in San Antonio.

Rios wanted noting resembling a patsy, though.

“I know I could have fought an easier opponent, but I want to show everyone what I am still capable of doing against a top level guy," he said.

Rios is 31-2-1 with 23 knockouts.

Chaves, 28, is ranked as high as the No. 6 welterweight by one governing body. Rios is unranked.

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You really have to like a guy who has the attitude of Daniel Geale as he prepares to challenge the very dangerous Gennady Golovkin for his middleweight championship Saturday at Madison Square Garden in New York City (on HBO).

Geale was asked during a recent conference call to explain what it is about Golovkin that makes him want to fight him so badly. His response was classic.

“To be honest, Gennady has got titles and I want titles,” said Geale, a former world champion. “That’s my main goal here. I want to fight the best fighters and I want to win some titles and there is only one way to do that, whether he has a great record or not. You have to get in there and test yourself against the best fighters in the world.”

Exactly what you want to hear from a world-class fighter heading into the lion’s den that is the heavy-handed Golovkin, who is 29-0 with 26 knockouts.

Geale is 30-2 with 16 knockouts. He lost his title to Darren Barker via split-decision in August 2013. He has fought once since and stopped Garth Wood after six rounds in February in his native Australia.

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Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Marcos Maidana of Argentina on Thursday at 1 p.m. will play host to a news conference at Pershing Square, 532 S. Olive St., in Downtown Los Angeles and it will be open to the public.

The two will be formally announcing their rematch slated for Sept. 13 at MGM Grand in Las Vegas. The Golden Boy Promotions/Mayweather Promotions event will be televised on Showtime pay-per-view.

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Floyd Mayweather Jr. will put his two welterweight championship belts on the line Sept. 13 when he squares off against Marcos Maidana at MGM Grand in Las Vegas, it was announced Thursday.

The two tangled May 3 at MGM Grand with Maidana giving Mayweather his stiffest test in years, Mayweather coming away with a majority decision.

The rematch, as with the first fight, will be available on Showtime pay-per-view.

Golden Boy Promotions will be the lead promoter, even though Mayweather Promotions CEO Leonard Ellerbe initially said they would no longer work with Golden Boy once longtime CEO Richard Schaefer resigned in early June.

But De La Hoya pointed out to this newspaper a couple of weeks ago that Mayweather had reserved that date and site under the Golden Boy banner and that, basically, Mayweather would have to use Golden Boy if he wanted to keep that.

Golden Boy has promoted Mayweather’s last nine fights, even though Mayweather has never been under contract to De La Hoya’s company.

Cuba’s amateur program has always been top-notch, so one has to wonder how many of its great amateurs would have been fine pros here in the States had they been able to freely come here to fight.

Sure, some have defected. But not everyone who tries succeeds. Erislandy Lara, a Cuban defector, first tried to defect in 2007. He was caught and returned. He defected again in 2008, that time successfully.

Lara, who Saturday will take on Saul “Canelo” Alvarez of Mexico at MGM Grand in Las Vegas (on Showtime pay-per-view), agreed we have missed out on a lot.

“Absolutely,” he said. “Obviously, Cuba’s a very strict country. It’s a country that you’ve got to do a lot of things to get over here to be free. And there are a tremendous amount of fighters in Cuba that would be world champions or very good fighters over here that are never able to make it.”

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A lot of smack has been talked by Cuba’s Erislandy Lara ahead of his July 12 junior middleweight title fight against Saul “Canelo” Alvarez of Mexico at MGM Grand in Las Vegas (on Showtime pay-per-view).

Oscar De La Hoya, who is promoting the fight under his Golden Boy Promotions banner, believes Alvarez has taken Lara’s mouthing off to heart.

“It’s going to be a great fight; I don’t want to predict anything,” De La Hoya said Tuesday. “Lara has been doing a lot of trash-talking that has been fueling ‘Canelo.’ I see him at an entirely different level and it’s exactly where he should be. He’s at a level of determination where he really wants to get this guy. It’s personal.”

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